


Eye of the Beholder

by SilverSapphyre



Series: Shorty Series [2]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Blood and Injury, Cussing, Cute, F/M, Fights with Demons/Devils, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Non-Graphic Blood and Injury, Pre-Relationship, sfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 18:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21002456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverSapphyre/pseuds/SilverSapphyre
Summary: Nero didn't hide that he wasn't fully human, but he wasn't flamboyant about it.  You never brought attention to what you noticed, just making mental notes of your observations and leaving it be...until one day, you're both injured after a string of jobs...





	Eye of the Beholder

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go with the second piece! The prompt list has expanded to about 15 now... It's not only "self-prompts" since some friends have done more than just CAUSE my brain to tailspin by now.

You knew Nero was more than just a regular human. His ethereal wings were a dead giveaway, but there were many other things you had noticed that you weren’t so sure he was aware of even doing. You had seen him lift the side of the van for Nico to change a flat tire like it was nothing. He also recovered insanely fast from your kicks to his shins for his reckless need to tease about your height, though he did make a show of rubbing said shins to make you feel a little better when he went too far.

The first time his temper _boiled_ in your vicinity, you noticed his eyes the most. The blue irises that you could get lost in glowed red then _burned_ into fiery, slit twin suns surrounded by black. He had been on the phone and slammed it so hard that you thought you heard the plastic crack.

“_Nero_!” Nico shouted from her worktable, “That phone didn’t do a damn thing to ya, and if it’s broken, I’m takin’ it outta yer ass! That’s the fourth one in six months!”

He only clenched his teeth and let out a low growl, flexing his hands like claws a couple times, then stormed out of the van.

“It’s not broken,” you called back to Nico, “but I’ll help him cool off.”

“You’re gonna need more than one job,” she advised while gesturing at you with a wrench.

You grinned. “Good thing I have three,” you said, holding up three fingers for emphasis. “One of them is a little much for me alone and was the reason I stopped by. Who was he talking to, anyway?”

“Probably Dante or Lady,” she answered, and you recalled a couple mentions of said Devil Hunters, “They love riling him up more than I do.” She was still muttering as you left, and you only caught, “Maybe I should put the phone on _their_ tabs,” before you were out the door.

You had to run to catch up with Nero, his long, angry stride having carried him quite quickly from the van. “Hey!” you called to get his attention, having a feeling like it would be stupid to touch him, “Slow down for a sec, geez! I have a few jobs, and I’d like to have your help for one of them…if you want to join me?”

He took in a slow breath, and you could see the veins in his neck pulsing and muscles in his jaw twinging. His voice had a tiny bit of something _extra_ to it when he quietly huffed, **“Sure; I’m always up for a fight.”**

You didn’t dwell on it, instead giving him a little grin with a thumbs up.

_______

Nero was more than happy to join you for all three jobs, and you forced him to take a cut of the pay from each since his help enabled you to finish them all quickly. When you came to collect said money, the client for the last surprised you with another. You were ready for a good sleep after doing those three in blistering succession, but this one was an emergency. A pack of demons being led by a Devil had bunkered down in a park. At the thought of innocent people, especially the possibility of _children_, being injured or killed, you pushed all exhaustion aside and made your way there.

You were carefully trying to find their hiding place, but Nero gently caught your shoulder and asked, “You sure you’re gonna be okay? The whole reason we kept going was because you were gonna sleep for a week after, remember?” You looked over at him, a smile curving your lips at the blatant concern furrowing his brow and pulling his lips into a frown. “I mean it. You wanna let me-”

You interrupted him with a poke to his abdomen. “Nero…” you scolded with an amused tone, “You’re just as bad off as me. There’s no way I’m going to let you go on alone.” He shot you an annoyed look, making you roll your eyes. “I trust your _capabilities_, Nero, but that’s just _not fair_… So, I’ll make a deal with you.” He kept glaring dryly at you with that slight, displeased frown, and you had to fight not to burst over how adorable he was. “I’ll take the small fries,” you kept talking to keep your mind from going off where it shouldn’t, “and you take the Devil leading them, okay?”

He pressed his lips together and huffed a sigh through his nose. “Alright, fine,” he muttered with a slight slump to his shoulders.

You bumped his thigh with your hip and gave him a cheeky grin when he looked at you. “Yell if you need help,” you teased.

He scoffed and rolled his eyes before mumbling, “Yeah, yeah… Same to you.”

_______

You and Nero had split up, and you had hoped it wasn’t a mistake at the time, but you found out just how bad of one it was when everything went from ‘doing okay’ to ‘in the shit.’ It wasn’t just a _handful_ of demons being led by a Devil. There were tens of hundreds of them, and you had to scramble to bottleneck them before they overwhelmed you. The one leading them was an _Elder_ Devil. You could hear a couple of explosions from Nero using his Devil Breakers as distractions, so you knew there was no way either of you could split from your set tasks to lend a hand to the other.

You cursed your stupidity for making that deal with him. You cursed yourself for not just going home to sleep and collecting your pay the next day. You then cursed yourself for the second thought since it would put innocents in danger. These thoughts weren’t helping you, though, so you tossed them aside, wiped the sweat and demon blood from your face before it ran into your eyes, and kept hacking away at your enemies while dodging vicious claws and snarling jaws.

Your heart nearly stopped when you couldn’t hear the nearby sounds of Nero’s fight. The snarls and growls of the enemies coming at you were getting quieter, and you noticed them thinning out, which worried you since you knew you hadn’t killed that many. You kept fighting until you could force your way back out of the building you had taken cover in. 

“Enough of the monologuing!” was the first thing you heard before the familiar, now-comforting blare of Blue Rose sounded, and you felt like you could breathe again. You had picked up on the fact that nothing annoyed Nero more than a Devil who wanted to shoot its mouth off for extended periods of time. He loved bantering and goading them, but when they started some great speech that took _ages_, he quickly tired of dealing with them.

You gave him a quick check-up glance, noting he looked a little banged up but otherwise fine, and turned to keep an eye out for the mass of demons you knew were still alive. It was then that you noticed them all gathering in the buildings above him along with the smirk on the Devil’s face. “_Ambush!_” you shouted, running toward him with all the speed your short legs could dish out, only vaguely making out the snarled curse he gave as he looked up.

Everything blended together in a haze of instinct, blood, and pain as the demons leapt for you and Nero. You were managing to escape with minor scratches and gashes and were very thankful for Nero keeping an extra eye on your back, his ethereal claws tearing demons away from you even as he twisted to strike with Red Queen. You did the same for him, shifting your weapon between its sword and gun modes with rapid efficiency. You found yourself pulled by a careful, spectral hand when a strange array appeared above you, and you went a little pale when a plethora of spikes rained down on where you had been standing.

Nero pulled you completely against him so that he could pivot into a flipping leap away from the spike trap that appeared above him. He landed lightly on his feet and sat you on your own before informing, “This one’s a cheap bastard. Thought I had him dead, but then he pulled this.”

“It’s okay,” you assured even as you opened fire under his arm on three that had followed you. “Are there any other tricks this guy has?”

“Just those magic circles, really,” he answered, “I’ve only seen him shoot spikes from them. He’s kinda fast and likes to kick, so he’ll probably be out of your melee range.” He smirked a little when you pouted briefly at him. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. We’ll be fine.”

You hissed at him, “_Don’t jinx it!_” but he only chuckled. 

Fifteen minutes later, most of the fodder demons were dead and the Elder Devil was weakened again, using some of its remaining power to try to kill one of you. Nero was cursing himself for jinxing both of you because he hadn’t known those arrays could appear beneath the ground, and it was only a split-second action on his part that prevented you from being skewered in vital areas. His spectral wings had shielded you both from a good portion of the attack when he had twisted, caught you by the upper arms, and leapt away. The landing was hard, jarring, and completely lacking his usual finesse, especially since you were still hanging in his grip, and it took you a moment to get your wits back from the unexpected movement, blinking your eyes rapidly in attempt to clear your vision.

Nothing would ever wipe away the sight of him with several spikes piercing him, and you didn’t care about the couple that punctured you after passing through him. “N-N-_Nero_…!” He was holding you at arm’s length, keeping the worst of them from reaching you, and at almost a foot off the ground, which was what stopped the wounds from becoming more agitated since they hadn’t vanished yet. “_Nero_,” you choked out his name again, “_Shit_\- Nero…how…why…?!”

“Heard ya th’ firs’ time,” he muttered, his words half-slurred with pain. He hissed as the spikes dissipated and left gaping holes in his body, a soft grunt also escaping you even though you tried to muffle it. “Dammit,” he cursed softly, dropping to one knee as his shredded thigh gave out. You had no clue how he still managed to not jostle you too badly, but your brain wasn’t functioning at anywhere near full capacity as blood gushed from his wounds and yours.

“Nero- You’ve gotta- You can’t- _You’re hurt_!” you stammered, reaching for him and gently moving his clothes. You couldn’t help a soft gasp as you _watched_ the multiple, severe wounds heal, and your hands shook as you carefully touched the new flesh. “Nero…?”

He raised his head to look at you, burning irises of golden-red surrounded by black staring intently at your face. You watched as his skin started turning bluish, a red strip showing from his forehead to his chin on each side of his face, and his hair began to lengthen. He half-ordered, **_“Stay down,”_** and you didn’t have the brainpower to contest such a thing since you noticed his sharper teeth. **_“Keep pressure on those wounds,”_** he added, moving your hands to do just that.

As he stood up and turned, whiteish-blue energy rippled over him. Even though a Devil stood before you, you didn’t feel any fear and murmured a soft, “Be careful,” before he became a whirlwind of steel, fire, gunshots, and claws. You were a little flabbergasted at how quickly he _decimated_ the few remaining fodder demons. He then tore through the Elder Devil like a wet paper bag before stepping toward you slowly, like he expected you to reject him. Instead, you reached for him with the bloody hand covering your thigh and quietly but firmly stated, “I’m not afraid.”

You were impressed he was still standing with all the tension that seemed to roll off him, but you pushed that aside as you tried to stand, though you stumbled due to avoiding putting pressure on your leg. He heaved a sigh and easily scooped you up into his arms. **_“It’s like the tinier you are the more stubborn you are,”_** he muttered, only half teasing due to the burst of adrenaline and following relief leaving him feeling a little off kilter. He didn’t want to drop out of his Devil form, though. There was the possibility of other enemies around, plus it was easier for him to control his power in said form.

You snorted then hissed as the pain started to make itself known, gritting your teeth and forcing out, “Nothin’ tiny ‘bout you.”

He grinned down at you and said, **_“I’m only not making a dick joke because laughing would hurt you,”_** before moving toward the sounds of screeching tires that were getting closer and closer. 

You snickered anyway, a tiny whine escaping between your teeth as you curled slightly due to your abdomen, and vaguely wondered exactly how much blood you had lost. You barely recalled entering the van and were soon being laid down on the couch with Nico hovering nearby. You needed a hospital and maybe a blood transfusion since you were starting to feel lightheaded, so nothing she had on hand other than cold towels to stem the flow of blood would help you.

You looked up at Nero with a furrowed brow when you heard his voice, and he slowly repeated, **_“Do…you…trust…me?”_**

“St-Stoopid quez’ten,” you slurred, “’Corz ah’do.”

He gave you a little smile, and you thought it made his Devilish face look so handsome but didn’t have the coherency to voice it. **_“Good… This might hurt,”_** he warned and leaned his head down to…_lick your abdomen_.

The oddness combined with sharp pain jarred your brain a bit, and you went to sit up, but his hand on your shoulder stopped you. It was then you noticed the spark of whiteish-blue energy over the inhumanly long appendage, and slowly but surely, the wound closed. “Your spit heals?” you blurted, and Nico snickered even as Nero shot you a dry glare.

**_“Kind of,”_** he muttered, not feeling like explaining the intricacies of demonic energy and conduits for it, **_“and don’t you dare make a dog joke. I’m _trying_ to be gentle.”_** He had few other options, and there was no way he was offering a blood transfusion since he had no idea what would happen. He moved on to the puncture in your leg, which was worse than the other wound but bled less, and you let your eyes slip closed. 

You dozed off to the radiating warmth of his hands and the feelings of his tongue and of the pain ebbing away, unconsciously reaching out to run your fingers through his hair.

He paused to glance up at you but huffed a soft laugh and went back to it when he noticed it wasn’t in reference to any dog jokes. He didn’t even notice his thumb gently stroking your shoulder.

Nico teased him heavily for _days_ afterwards, and he couldn’t run to your house and hide from her again due to his own embarrassment.

_______

Almost a week later, when Nero could finally look at you again without turning into a tomato, you tugged him outside the van and to a nearby bench that was mostly private. You noticed he didn’t resist your grip on his hand, but a light pink decorated his pale cheeks. “Okay,” you huffed as you sat and looked up at him. He stared at you for a moment until you gestured to the bench beside you. “Waiting for an invite?”

“No need to get snarky,” he muttered as he plopped down, leaning back and crossing his ankles. You noted his aborted motion of stretching his arms out across the back of the bench but didn’t bring attention to it.

Instead, you helped him smooth it over by giving him a wry, little smirk and teasing, “That’s priceless considering who it’s coming from,” before settling back and huffing a small sigh. You glanced over at him before muttering, “I want to know all of you – human and demon. I’m human, so I have a leg up on that… Are you willing to talk to me about the latter part?”

That shocked him, which you knew by the way he stilled for a moment and his eyes widened a little, but you simply mentally filed the action for later. You figured some people had seen his transformation and then became fearful of him. You recalled Nico _yelling_ at him when he was so close to volcanically pissed off, but she was weird and was likely one of the exceptions rather than an example. “Well,” he huffed finally, “that’s a broad way of putting it. Can you be a little more specific?”

“You have healing spit-” He snorted and rolled his eyes, shooting you a look of pure annoyance. Instead of fidgeting, you gave him a cheeky grin and moved on with your bluntness. “I’m very grateful to you for healing me, by the way.” You felt more awkward by the minute and gave into the nervous energy just a little, kicking your feet since they didn’t fully touch the ground. “That would have involved stitches, a blood transfusion or three, and possible surgery plus at least a week in the hospital, not to mention _rehab_ for my thigh, if I had gone to one.” You took note of how tense he became as you spoke, so you softly assured him, “You don’t have to worry about me ever telling anyone, okay? You didn’t choose to be born with demon blood, and I’d seriously injure, maybe even maim or kill, anyone who tried to hurt you for it.”

He heaved a sigh, uncrossing his ankles and bending his knees to lean forward and rest his arms on his thighs. After a few moments, he glanced over at you and said, “I don’t broadcast being part demon…” He frowned and added, “And I definitely don’t want people to know what I’m capable of…” before his face softened again with a tiny smile while saying, “You’re _different_, though. _You_ didn’t flinch away from me.” You noted the implied ‘_Everyone flinches away_,’ but he continued with asking, “Will you…tell me why…you didn’t?” so slowly that it made your heart ache.

You shot him a little smile, lifting your legs to cross them, which left you picking at the hem of your jeans instead. “I knew you weren’t fully human when I first met you,” you admitted, earning another quick, shocked look. “I ran smack into you, and you didn’t move.” He snickered at the memory, and you rolled your eyes with an amused smile. “I might be small, but I can generate a lot of force when I want, especially if I’ve got a little momentum. I’ve knocked over guys burlier than you, and I admittedly didn’t have the momentum to flatten you, but you were like running into a wall.”

He leaned back again, and you noted he spread his arms out this time, which made you feel warm inside since you wanted him to be comfortable with you. “You kicked me with enough strength to put a human leg out of commission for a good two hours, too,” he mentioned before looking at you with a furrowed brow. “You _counted_ on me walking away from that, didn’t you?”

You grinned sheepishly, feeling a little heat come to your cheeks. “Guilty…though it _was_ mostly preconditioned instinct for being teased about my height.”

He huffed a little laugh. “You’re somethin’ else. Between Kyrie, Nico, and you, my brain will never get any rest.”

“Hey,” you poked his side, mentally noting both the name ‘Kyrie’ and his startled sway to get away from your finger, “You’re the one who stumbles onto my porch covered in blood and complaining about your coworkers.” You shot him a little smirk as you added, “Nice try on the subject change, though.”

His cheeks turned a little pink as he drew in a deep breath and let his head fall back. “You caught me,” he mumbled, though you had to fight not to get distracted by the pale column of his throat. “Seriously, though, what else can I tell you that you don’t already know? I heal from fatal wounds in seconds, I’ve never been sick, I’m extremely strong, and I have weird wing-arm-hand things.”

You twisted on the bench to face him directly and said, “Nero, I know about demons in general – they’re strong and hard to kill, human blood is their power source, and the limits of their possible shapes and sizes seem to be rooted only in fantasy.” 

He snorted in amusement, unable to help a grin at remembering all the ones he had come across. 

You poked his arm then down his side until he jerked again and shot you an agitated glare. “Stop that and _look at me_. Whatever form you are, you’re still _Nero_, okay? I trusted you when I thought you were a slightly demonic dork, I trusted you when I thought you were a more-demonic dork, and I trust you now when I know you’re a part-Devil dork.”

He stared at you for a moment before glancing away shyly and muttering, “Stop callin’ me a dork.”

“You _are_ a dork, though.” It took effort not to call him adorable, but you would save that for when he wasn’t so awkward and skittish. “Seriously, though,” you mumbled, reaching out to catch his chin with gentle fingers and turn his head back before continuing, “Whether it’s this squishy, pale face,” you patted his cheek, “or the spiky, blue face,” you snickered when his brow furrowed, “you are you. Your brain doesn’t change, and neither does your soul.”

He pressed his lips together as he considered your words, reaching up to gently take your hand that was still on his cheek and spreading your fingers with his to press your palms together. After a few moments, it was like a wave of tension washed off him. You watched a precious, crooked smile grow on his face that made his eyes crinkle a little, and you admired the beautiful expression with a little grin of your own. Finally, though, with his voice barely above a whisper, he said, “You’re somethin’ special, ya know that?”

You didn’t even think, simply leaning forward to nuzzle your forehead against his cheek, and just as quietly replied, “I’ve already told you, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’”

He drew back a little to stare at you, his expression a mix of shock, wonder, and confusion. You didn’t look away from his intense gaze, feeling like doing so would somehow interrupt or ruin whatever was going through his mind. His fingers closed between yours, and you gladly returned the gesture. He leaned toward you, a handful of things he could be thinking of doing running through your mind, but he merely pressed his forehead to yours as a soft, trembling sigh slipped from between his lips. 

“Thank you,” he breathed, his eyes slipping closed as he pressed your clasped hands to his chest. “Thank you for not being afraid…for being so observant and analytical…for your oddball point of view… Thank you for being _you_…”

You had no clue what to say to that, not sure if you _should_ say anything, so you simply mumbled, “You’re welcome, Nero,” and gently squeezed his hand.

You were sure you both would’ve sat there all day if Nico hadn’t hung her head out the van’s door and yelled about a job.

**Author's Note:**

> Also on tumblr: @SilverSapphyre


End file.
